What a Blockchain API Is and How to Use It

The explosive growth of blockchain technology has opened up a world of possibilities, but accessing and leveraging its full potential can be daunting for developers. Integrating blockchain data into applications, enabling secure transactions, or retrieving on-chain information often feels complex and out of reach.

Blockchain APIs provide the solution by acting as a bridge between developers and blockchain networks, making blockchain integration much more accessible. And at thirdweb, we know just how important blockchain APIs are for web3 apps.

So in this guide, we’ll explore what a blockchain API is, how it works, and how you can get involved with setting one up.

Let's dive in:

What Is a Blockchain API?

A blockchain API (Application Programming Interface) is a tool that allows developers to read and interact with blockchain data. Instead of dealing with the intricate mechanics of blockchain nodes and protocols, developers can rely on APIs to execute tasks such as reading transaction data, submitting smart contracts, or managing wallets.

These APIs simplify development, saving time and effort while enabling beginner and expert blockchain developers to build powerful applications.

What Is a Blockchain API Key?

A blockchain API key is a unique identifier provided to a developer by the API's provider to authenticate and track its usage. This lets the provider monitor the number of requests made, manage rate limits and prevent abuse. API keys can also be configured to grant specific permissions, such as read-only access or transaction execution.

How Does a Blockchain API Work?

Blockchain APIs function by translating complex blockchain operations into simple, standardized commands that developers can easily integrate into their applications. When a request is made through the API, it's processed and relayed to the blockchain network. The API then returns the relevant data or confirmation of the transaction back to the application.

What does a blockchain API do?

By abstracting away complex blockchain protocols, APIs empower developers to focus on their application logic rather than low-level blockchain operations.

Essentially they can handle functions such as querying transaction histories, wallet balances, or smart contract data, or even deploying or calling smart contracts.

Types of Blockchain APIs

Not all blockchain APIs serve the same purpose. For every web3 industry, there’s an accompanying API. Let’s check out some of the key types of blockchain APIs you should know about.

Blockchain Data API

Blockchain data APIs provide access to historical and real-time blockchain data. They allow developers to retrieve information such as transaction details, block data, and wallet balances. These APIs are essential for creating analytics tools, tracking transactions, and building blockchain explorers.

NFT API

NFT (Non-Fungible Token) APIs enable developers to interact with NFT marketplaces and manage NFT-related operations. These APIs facilitate the creation, transfer, and querying of NFTs, making it easier to build NFT-centric applications and marketplaces. These APIs are well-suited for gaming applications, marketplaces, and tokenized rewards systems

Smart Contract API

Smart contract APIs provide developers with tools to deploy, interact with, and monitor smart contracts on various blockchain networks. These APIs simplify the process of executing complex smart contract functions and retrieving contract data.

Wallet API

Wallet APIs offer functionalities for creating and managing cryptocurrency wallets. They enable developers to generate addresses, check balances, and initiate transactions, making it easier to integrate wallet features into applications.

Node API

Node APIs connect directly to blockchain nodes, enabling low-level operations such as running queries to access data about node activity such as processing transactions and staking.

Best Blockchain APIs

When choosing the best blockchain APIs for your project, you’ll want something tailored to your type of blockchain app. Let’s dive into the blockchain APIs out there and which is the best option for your web3 app.

1. Insight API

This tool allows developers to query blockchain data across multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. It enriches data with metadata and enables custom transformations, perfect for applications in gaming, DeFi, and NFTs. Query blockchain data, without needing full ABIs. Write data to the blockchain or even listen to blockchain events—the blockchain’s information is at your fingertips.

2. thirdweb Blockchain API

thirdweb's blockchain API is a performant, reliable and type safe blockchain API that can read and write to any contract on any EVM chain through our RPC Edge endpoints. With pre-built read and write extensions, you can do more with less code.

3. Engine API

thirdweb Engine is a backend solution for deploying and interacting with smart contracts at scale, designed for high transaction throughput and secure wallet management. It uses an API to query blockchain data and connect on and offchain apps. As such, it’s perfect for event notifications, making it ideal for seamless minting, airdrops, and conditional transactions based on real-time and blockchain events.

How to Use a Blockchain API

Using a blockchain API depends on which API you're using and what your wend goal is. So, let's take a look at the process of using blockchain APIs for each purpose.

How to Access Blockchain API

Ready to connect your app or website to a blockchain API? Here's how you do it:

1. Choose an API Provider such as thirdweb
2. Sign Up for Access and obtain an API key
3. Explore Documentation to familiarize yourself with the API's capabilities through its documentation.

How to Use a Blockchain API in a Website

Using a blockchain API in a website will depend on what kind of website it is and what kind of data you need to fetch. But typically, to hook your website up to a blockchain API you’ll need to integrate it with frontend frameworks like React or backend systems via Node.js. From there, you should be able to display on-chain data or enable wallet interactions directly in your application.

How to Use Blockchain API in C

1. Use REST APIs to send HTTP requests directly in C. Blockchain APIs communicate using HTTP, so you need to send requests (e.g., asking for account balances or transaction history).
2. Use libcurl Library: libcurl is a popular tool in C that helps send these HTTP requests and handle the responses, making it easier to connect your program to the blockchain API.

What Is the REST API in Blockchain?

A REST API in blockchain allows developers to interact with blockchain networks using standard HTTP methods like GET, POST, and DELETE. It’s a widely used API format for accessing blockchain data and services, making it beginner-friendly and easy to adopt.

How to Use Blockchain API in PHP

If you want to use a blockchain API in PHP, here's what you have to do:

1. Send API Requests using tools like cURL or PHP libraries like Guzzle.
2. The API returns data in JSON format, which you can decode using PHP's built-in json_decode() function. This allows you to process the blockchain data and use it in your PHP application.

What Is the Fastest Blockchain API?

The speed of a blockchain API depends on factors like the provider’s infrastructure and network congestion. thirdweb is one of the leading providers of blockchain APIs, offering reliable, secure, and fast solutions for any app or ecosystem.

Blockchain APIs: The Key to building simple apps

Blockchain APIs are powerful tools that simplify the process of interacting with blockchain networks. By providing standardized interfaces and abstracting complex operations, they enable developers to build innovative blockchain-based applications more efficiently. Whether you're working on a dApp, an NFT marketplace, or a blockchain analytics tool, choosing the right blockchain API and understanding how to use it effectively can significantly accelerate your development process and enhance the functionality of your project.

Ready to explore the world of blockchain development? Start integrating, and bring your vision to life!